What is it?
Archive Of Our Own supports a "fannish next-of-kin" which is granted full control over your AO3 account when you are deceased.
In the event that an AO3 user is not comfortable delegating this power to an individual, the Fandom Memorial Trust can act as the fannish next of kin instead.
The Trust supports the archival goals of Archive of Our Own, and has several priorities when acting as fannish next-of-kin:
- ensuring fanworks by deceased authors are preserved unaltered
- ensuring clarity of transformative work permissions for fanworks by deceased authors
How does it work?
Please note: the Trust is not yet ready to accept next-of-kin registrations.
In the future, the process will require registering with fandommemorialtrust.org, providing:
Next you will submit a request to AO3 to make the Trust your fannish next-of-kin.
In the event of your passing, you may leave instructions in your will to contact the Trust;
the Trust will then invoke AO3's documented next-of-kin protocol to gain access to your account and ensure the requested permissions statement is present.
The Trust will not reveal your AO3 account details to any party besides a Trust administrator.
We are also considering an opt-in dead man's switch, where next-of-kin activities would automatically be invoked
after at least 1 year of inactivity and 30 days of unresponsiveness.
Why is this useful?
Some fans are not comfortable sharing their fandom identities with the people most likely to be aware of their passing.
Other fans may not have peers who share their same values for preserving/transforming their works.
Finally, since the Trust is not just a single individual, it is easier to provide continuity.
Who is behind this?
This effort is led by lastontheboat, with support from members of the Podfic Chat discord server.
Interested in learning more?
Sign up to receive updates or provide feedback. We also have a Discord server for feedback and discussion.
FAQ
How does the Trust keep my identity private?
When you register your AO3 account with the Trust, we provide you with a unique, anonymous identifier
(eg. AZ35JFD8).
This identifier acts like a password—if someone else contacts the Trust and
provides that identifier (eg. an email from a stranger with the subject AZ35JFD8 has passed away),
we will follow the procedures to initiate the AO3 next-of-kin protocol. However, we will never reveal the
associated AO3 account details to anyone who is not an administrator of the Trust.